Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Ultracapacitors, also known as electric double-layer capacitors, may have higher energy densities when compared to other capacitor devices, such as electrolytic capacitors, and have emerged as important energy storage devices in automotive, electrical and industrial applications. Ultracapacitors are often employed to provide short bursts of power, for example, to smooth out variations in electrical supply or demand. During such burst operation, ultracapacitors may produce substantial pulses of thermal energy and management of such thermal energy may become an important issue in the design and implementation of ultracapacitor devices and/or systems.
Phase change materials, such as phase change metal alloys including, for example, some alloys of Copper, Aluminum and Nickel, may reversibly undergo phase transitions between Martensitic and Austenitic crystalline structures in response to thermal impulses. Latent energy associated with such phase transitions may substantially increase the local heat capacity of these materials. These effects may allow phase change materials to more efficiently dissipate heat in response to thermal impulses.